New COVID Variant?
August 4, 2021The Olympics Brought Attraction And COVID
August 9, 2021Just a day after hearing the first reported cases of the Delta Plus variant, we have been presented with a new variant: the Lambda variant. The original COVID variant that took over 2020 in America and the rest of the world doesn’t seem to stand up to this variation, and gave us far less reason to worry. The Newsweek states, “There is concern over the threat posed by the Lambda variant of COVID-19 which may be more resistant to vaccines than the original version of the virus.” In America, we have recently surpassed the Biden Administrations goal of 70% vaccination rate in late July, but now it may appear that all that work was done for nothing. Newsweek continues on, “Research by a team from the University of Tokyo, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that three mutations in Lambda’s spike protein help it resist neutralization by vaccine-induced antibodies.”
This is certainly scary news and it feels as if we keep taking a step backwards each day. It started with the Delta variant being introduced, and then the CDC recommended that all individuals wear masks whether vaccinated or not, it progressed to the Delta Plus variant, and now we have the scariest variant yet, the Lambda variant. Will this bring us to another shutdown?
If this variant is as scary as they are making it seem, I don’t think a shutdown is unlikely. This feels like the fear we all had when we were introduced to COVID early on in 2020. It seems more infectious, and since it’s likely to be vaccine resistant, that would mean nobody is no longer protected. It will be interesting to see what the next few weeks brings us as a global community. More studies will have to be done to find an effective vaccine.